


(Not) Happily Ever After

by aestivus



Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-06
Updated: 2012-12-06
Packaged: 2017-11-20 12:13:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/585302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aestivus/pseuds/aestivus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lizzie doesn't believe there's such a thing as 'happy ever after'. </p><p>That doesn't mean she's not happy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Not) Happily Ever After

It's not simply a happy ever after. How can it be?

This relationship is, in many ways, a first for both of them. It's not that they're new to the concept per se so much as that this relationship is different from the others. She struggles to call him her 'boyfriend', because it feels wrong on her tongue. Juvenile, maybe. Casual. Teenage. 

Lizzy isn't really sure she can define what the difference is, though she can point it out in small things. She's never been sent flowers before, or taken to fancy restaurants, though these are inconsequential - it would be different even without them. 

Perhaps it's that they're cautious. They've been through so much, and she has finally realised her true feelings about him, but… where do you go from there? How do you begin?

They start with dates. They're not _together_ together, at first. "We need to get to know each other, first," Lizzy says, sensibly. 

"I do know you," Darcy argues. "I'm in love with you."

She's in love with him, too, she's pretty sure, but that's not the point here: how many civil conversations have they had? They need to start over. 

He gives in to her demands, but only cautiously. He finds the situation awkward. When that date actually happens, so does she. 

In some ways, she wins largely by default. They live in different cities, still, and between his job and her degree, there's no easy way to simply _be_ together. That will change come summer, she knows, and that makes her quietly determined to make sure they work their way through the early relationship maze first. 

Jane moves in with Bing within weeks of _their_ renewed relationship, but Lizzie is much more cautious. It makes sense to move to LA, once her degree is finished, but she won't move in with Darcy. "It's too much pressure," she says. "If this, if _us_ , doesn't work out, then I lose my home." 

"It will work."

"It might not."

"I want you here."

"You don't always get to have what you want."

They argue over it. They argue over a lot of things, and while sometimes the arguments are fun - combative and passionate - sometimes they hurt, too. She feels like he treats her like an object, demanding her presence, forcing her into the slot in his life he's laid out for her. He feels like she's being stubborn just for the sake of it, that it's stupid to keep separate residences when - by now - he's quite convinced they'll end up sleeping beside each other most nights anyway. 

He's right on that last point, but it takes Lizzie a few months to acknowledge it, and even longer before she's willing to give up her tiny studio, the one she almost never visits, and move in. 

She has a job, at least, though she's pretty sure she has Darcy to think for that - his influence, his contacts, his quiet word to the hiring manager. She likes the work, though, and while it doesn't pay much, it's enough to get by… or it would be, if it weren't for Darcy's way of life. She's embarrassed and uncomfortable with the opulence of it all, with the restaurants and events he takes her to, and the clothes he insists on buying for her to wear to them. His wealth makes her uncomfortable - the way he splashes it around without thinking about it. 

They argue about that, too. 

Sometimes, they argue so much, and so frequently, that Lizzie wonders if the whole thing is really working. She loves him - she knows that for absolutely certain, now - but is love enough? There are such gulfs between them. He's an introvert; she's an extrovert. He's wealthy and easy with his money; she's not, and prefers to hoard her pennies, just in case. Sometimes, she finds it hard to really understand how they can possibly ever work. What do they have in common?

But there's always something to remind her. 

She has never felt so loved. 

She has never felt so excited just to hold someone's hand. 

Charlotte laughs at her, sometimes, but Jane's is a knowing smile. 

And so they persevere. 

There's no such thing as smooth sailing. It gets easier and easier to love each other, for who and what they are, but they will never be Jane and Bing. 

There are nights when they go to bed angry with each other, and nights where one or the other of them goes to sleep somewhere else. There are epic battles, and snippy arguments, and quietly simmering resentments. 

Lizzie doesn't believe there's such a thing as 'happy ever after'. 

That doesn't mean she's not happy.


End file.
